Time is money. It is one of the most powerful investments we can make, yet we squander it as if it were eternal. But the biggest obstacle you have to overcome is the proliferation of unproductive meetings. Do you have the feeling that all day you had nothing but meetings? That you start working when everyone left? Do you feel that despite the long and tedious meetings you don't get anything in particular? Although many times you can not do without meetings, you can do something to make the use of time much more efficient.
These are 5 steps that I advise you not to skip when preparing a meeting if you want to make it more productive and efficient:
1- Ask yourself before making a meeting: what do I need? What do I want to achieve? Can I do it differently? Many times meetings are held that could be resolved with an email or a phone call.
2- Identify the objective of the meeting. Communicate it. Put together an agenda and communicate it. And then stick with it and never lose the purpose of the meeting for a moment. And if you lose it, redirect your audience to the goal of the meeting.
- If when they start a topic you realize that it is more extensive than they expected or need from other people or other alternatives open to consider, open the possibility to another meeting. Do not extend the current one. And make sure that the new meeting has a clear objective, agenda, and target audience. If information is lacking for decision-making, make sure that those who should do the research or analysis stick with that task and complete it before the next meeting. The moderator or whoever decides, must check this compliance at least 24 hours before the new meeting.
3- Be consistent and concrete when presenting. The more specific you are (and ask for the same thing) the more effective the meeting will be. With respect, the moderator can redirect a participant who has rambled (or gone off the rails) so that everyone feels that their time is valued, and most importantly, the objective of the meeting is met.
4- Identify who the recipients are: do not invite many people "just in case." Identify who is essential to make a decision, and if you should invite people politically or to be informed, put them as optional and explain that their participation has this style.
5- Comply with time: this is really important in several aspects:
- People trust you if you say that you are going to meet a certain time and show that you meet it People focus on meeting the goal, because they know they have a time limit If the meeting is long and a break time is required, plan it. Indicate it at the beginning of the meeting (if possible in the agenda so much the better!) And say clearly how much the break will be. If it is a 3 hour meeting, you can make a break of 5-10 minutes. But if it is a work day you will need to make more frequent breaks or a longer one. It clearly indicates how much the break will be and especially at what time you start again. Mention that they take advantage of this break to go to the toilet, drink a coffee, make a phone call or answer any pending mail.But make sure they know what the return time is and emphasize enough for them to do their best to meet that time. Watch out for tolerances - they are a double-edged sword. Waiting 5 minutes to start sounds very consistent and humane. But if you always have a tolerance of 15 minutes when starting the meeting until all the participants have arrived, many people will end up thinking that they can be 10 or 15 minutes late because you always tolerate that time. Here you would not be appreciating those who really arrived early, and your credibility when conducting meetings is at stake. If you have really important and high-level guests without whom it is not possible to start the meeting,be sure to call their attendees 15 minutes before the meeting to remind them of the meeting and subtly ask if you will have their company at the scheduled time. There you can find out if they will be there or if they are involved in some other more important meeting, and you can make your decisions.
If they are informational meetings, please let them know. Many tools today allow you to record your meetings, and some people may prefer to listen to the recordings later, and they do not need to participate at the same time. You can do the same. Record the presentation in your spare time and then enable a 15-minute round of questions and answers at the end of the meeting. It is much more effective and you can repeat it as many times as you need, without having to say everything over and over again. It is a strategy that is widely used for training or routine information meetings and that needs to be repeated many times. Be creative and use technology as a competitive advantage in your favor.
So what advice will you implement today to make your meetings more productive?
